Easy Celtic Motif Pattern

Inspired by Fox’s recent venture into Celtic tatting, I played around and came up with this little motif. I did a lot of Celtic tatting in the past, but for whatever reason haven’t done any in the last few years. Sidetracked? Trying out other things? Anyway, it was nostalgic and fun to give it another go.

Notes for newbies: This motif uses one color for the rings and one for the chains. To simplify, you can use one color for both and tat off the ball, or a single color with two shuttles. To get the two color effect, simply wind two shuttles with different colors, tie them together and use one shuttle to make rings and switch shuttles when you get to the chains. Remember to begin by hiding your ends under the first few stitches.

By the way, it will be a lot easier to do the weaving with two shuttles instead of a ball of thread.

Note on Celtic chains: When making the long chain that will twist around in a Celtic design, keep the tension a bit loose. That is, you will usually pull the working thread tight so that the stitches curl up, but in Celtic tatting tatting you want to do this just enough to get a mild curve going. You need to keep the flexibility so you can twist it whichever way you want.

Side 2:Repeat the fist set exactly. The only difference is that after making the chain, you will weave it through the first chain before making the final set of three rings. Use the diagram below to guide your weaving.

(Please excuse my crude diagrams, as I’m still getting used to a new drawing software.)

How to weave: Make the first chain as normal and simply twist once to get the fish shape.

Chain 1

Make the second chain and do the same twist, with the shuttles or shuttle and ball still attached, waiting to make the last set of rings.

Chain 2

Now lay the second chain on top of the first one as if it were finished. It should look like the diagram below. Take a careful look at where the top and bottom chains cross, and now do the actual weaving, pulling the shuttles through along with the chain.

Woven Together

If you are tatting off the ball, you won’t be able to weave the whole ball of thread through so you have two options. Pull off more than enough thread to finish the three remaining rings, do the weaving, then either 1) finger tat the three rings, or 2) wind them onto a shuttle and tat the rings with that.

There you go! A cute tatted Celtic motif!

I put this little cutie on a pale green thank you card that complements it nicely.

I just came across this pattern and thought it perfect for my sister and husband. They just got married and tattooed with a Celtic knot. I thought I would make this and put it on a handcrafted photo album. Thanks so much for the inspiration.

I am making a 5 pointed star. The center is white and made separate from the star points with 5 circles and chains between them. I am trying to figure out how to end at the end of the last chain as the circles are not connected to each other at all. I don’t have my coach any more as I learned to tat from my grandmother. I have many of her tatting shuttles. How do you connect the last chain to the first circle to make a circle with 5 chains and 5 circles. This star is the emblem of the Order of the Eastern Star and each point is a different color representative of their lessons. The star points hook on through the picots and I know how to do that. My favorite thing to tat is a cross that I love to make.